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A visit to a prehistoric park resulted in a very close encounter.
I now refer to a very pertinent question - Are we, as a human species, here by chance (or luck if you prefer) or by Intelligent Design? It is pertinent because it is related to the evolution of species since the beginning of life on earth. The Darwinian answer to this question is NEITHER. With such a lush diversity of species since prehistoric age, nothing is created by chance and there is no Intelligent Designer. Every species evolved purely by natural selection, and this is an ongoing process of adaptation. We evolve to survive and adapt to our environment and this process can take a very, very long time. So long that we forgot where we came from!

Stock images from Wikimedia Commons and sxc.hu.
Penang Ferry from Dreamstime.

Landscape and sky created with Terragen as posted here.

The World according to Terragen

It's that time of the year to change format! As you will notice in my recent postings, I've put off my oil painting for quite awhile. Apart from the fact that my art supplies are running low, I don't want to be too 'specialised' in traditional oil painting. I'm trying out some new art platform - this time it's Terragen, a photorealistic landscape renderer. I could just create a whole new world without lifting a brush - traditionally or digitally speaking. Once I've created my terrain, I just need to fiddle with the built-in camera angles and positions to arrive at the best viewpoint that I can capture. So, beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder.

Terragen has actually been around for around 5 years now and its free for non-commercial use. Although the images are computer generated, to get to that final image which I like doesn't come without lots of work in terms of color picking, presetting, scaling etc. In short I have to adjust all possible parameters to create my desired terrain, followed by grass cover, sand, rocks, snow, clouds, water level and atmosphere. Most of the time, as I've mentioned, is spent playing around with the camera. Below are some results from a first-timer:









Perhaps soon, with the appropriate plug-ins and without transporting to any other platform, Terragen will allow me to introduce other stuff like birds flying, boat riding, fishing or even mountain biking! We can only imagine what the future holds. Until then, here are some hauntingly beautiful landscapes rendered by experts. Give Terragen a try and travel the world. With luck, you could find yourself in the Land of Hobbitts!